Windows Home Server

Why Get a Home Server — And How to Get Yours Free!

Today I’ll show you how a Home Server can help you organize and protect all of your music, photos, videos and other documents.

I’ll also show you how a Home Server can really simplify how you use your computers at home and some cool things you can do with it.

Then we’ll get right into the juicy details of how you can get your hands on a Home Server — without spending a dime!

The Server’s in the House!

If you think a server in your house is a bit weird then you’re not alone, but consider this …

“In the 1960s & 70s the idea of a home computer was unheard of outside of science fiction circles. Before the late 1980s home networks were unheard of.”

Nowadays owning a computer is almost as common as owning a phone, and for many a home network is quickly becoming a necessity. Today there are over 365 million people who own a home computer and over 100 million households have a home network. Not bad for a couple of decades.

So what does all of this mean? Well for starters, it means that the times are changing … and our needs are changing as well.

A home server brings a little bit of the corporate world into our homes. Mainly it brings sharing and storing capacity so that we can use our computers at home the way we use them at the office.

But instead of sharing spreadsheet and reports, we can share family photos, our favorite music, videos, and anything else. If you ask me, it’s the perfect blend of work and fun!

What Can a Home Server Do for Me?

A home server has many roles, it is designed to:

store all of your data in a centralized location

organize your documents from all of your PCs in a single place

protect all of your data from hard drive failure and other disasters

connect all of the computers and printers

expand and grow with your needs

A home server is really a small PC that works as a server, but it’s built a bit differently. For example, it doesn’t have a video card because it doesn’t need one. You won’t be connecting your monitor or keyboard to it since you can access your home server through your computer. Instead, it has more storage capacity so that you can grow your system as your storage needs increase.

Your home server connects with an Ethernet cord, so that you can access it with your computer on your network. The best part is that you can also access your server from any computer with an Internet connection, and this little feature can be extremely useful.

How many times did you need to access your computer’s files when you were away from home — and your computer? I know, I used to email myself with various documents that I thought I might need for school or work in case I didn’t have my computer with me. And what a mess that was!

Well that’s no longer an issue; anything that you store on your home server can easily be accessed remotely at any time and from anywhere.

Another thing you might not know about the home server is how easy it is to use. Accessing documents on your home server is just like accessing them from your hard drive. This is good news to everyone in your household that will be connected to the home server. Your 8 year old son or your 80 year old grandma will still be able to use the computer as they normally would.

So what else can you do with your home server? These are just a few of the more popular features:

Photo web sharing — set up your own personal website for sharing all of your family photos

DVR settings — record your favorite movies and TV shows without an extra piece of hardware

Personalized user accounts — so that everyone in your house can have private and public files

Access to multimedia from your xBox — listen to your favorite music, watch videos or a slideshow of your family photos right in your living room

And lots more!

Why Should I Get a Home Server?

A home server is definitely not for everyone. If you have only one computer at home that you rarely use, then you probably don’t need one.

Remember, home server’s main role is to connect multiple PCs. However, if you would like to benefit from the storage capabilities, the protection, and remote access to your documents, then a home server might just be the perfect fit — even if you’re just connecting a single computer.

In either case, you definitely need to weigh out the pros and cons of getting a home server for your home — most of the pros are outlined above, and the cons are mainly the costs associated with the purchase.

So if you think that the cost might be the only thing holding you back from getting your own home server then keep reading … below I’ll show you how you can get your chance to win your very own, brand new Windows Home Server!

Why Pay? When You Can Get a Home Server for Free!

When a good friend of mine told me about this great opportunity to score a free Home Server, the first thing I thought was how awesome it would be to get one for my house.

I know, it’s very selfish of me, but I didn’t want to miss out on this chance so I went over to Microsoft’s site and signed up right away.

Then I thought, this would be a great thing to share with all of my friends! Everyone loves free stuff, right!

And a Windows Home Server is not the only thing you can win … Microsoft is also giving away a free Zune and an xBox 360! The best part is that you don’t get just one chance to win, you can win the free stuff every week until summer.

But I’m getting ahead of myself here, let’s start from the beginning … here’s what you need to do.

Go to Microsoft’s Evalu’08 and test drive one of their featured products like Windows Server 2008, Visual Studio 2008, SQL Server 2008, and more. All you need to start is an MSN or Hotmail account.

If you try one product, you are automatically entered to win a Zune, try two products and you can win an xBox 360, or try three and a Windows Home Server can be yours!

To try a product of your choice, you can either download a free trial or take a virtual tour. I tried a virtual tour of Microsoft Expression Web and it was actually kind of fun! Plus I learned a few handy tips and tricks that I didn’t know about before.

But before you pick the products that you want to take a look at keep in mind that there is a limit on the “evaluations” that you can do. So make sure to pick the 3 products that you really want to check out.

So get started! This promotion starts today, March 7th and, as I mentioned before, one winner will be selected each week for each prize category until June 30th. But I would recommend trying out the products early so you can have more chances to win.

All non-winning entries will be carried over to the following week’s drawings. So if you don’t win the first or second week don’t worry, you still have a chance to win every week until the end of the promotion.